The present invention relates to systems and methods for delivering samples for mass spectrometric analysis. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods for facilitating high throughput mass spectrometric analysis of generated electrospray ionized samples.
Generating electrospray ionized samples for mass spectrometric analysis generally requires samples to be delivered to electrospray ionization source at a low flow rate. To minimize contamination and improve the accuracy of the results of the mass spectrometric analysis, before another sample can be processed by a delivery system which delivers the samples to the electrospray ionization source, those portions of the delivery system which were exposed to the previous sample need to be thoroughly rinsed. Existing sample delivery systems accomplish this rinse cycle at the same flow rate at which the samples are delivered to the electrospray ionization source. Because the volume of rinsing agent that may be required to adequately rinse the delivery system can be quite large, existing delivery systems cannot support high throughput mass spectrometric analysis protocols since a significant amount of time for rinsing has to be expended between the introduction and analysis of each subsequent sample.